Chapter 6

Things after that day started to finally look up, for once in my life. Stephen made me so happy that I couldn't stop smiling. We constantly hung out together at each other's houses, and we talked on the phone a lot. He was the man of my dreams, and I even envisioned my wedding with him; of course, without the glasses. After school one day in November, we were meeting together to say goodbye, and I noticed something was different about him.

"What's wrong with your glasses?" I asked him, seeing that they had been taped at the bridge.

"They broke. My friend Neal was serving the volleyball and it hit my face," he said. I stifled laughter, and I pulled off the broken glasses. I hadn't seen him without his glasses, and I gasped when I saw him. His eyes were much more... beautiful then they had been, he looked so much better without them.

"I'm going to make an eye appointment after school," he said, but I was barely listening.

"Get contacts," I breathed.

"Yeah, I wanted to. You know, the ones that can make your eyes white! Or even red!" He exclaimed. My eyes widened.

"Stephen, don't you dare get those. I would kill you," I said with fear.

"Don't worry, I will," he said. I came at him to beat him up, but he grabbed my arms and held me toward him.

"Please, promise me you won't get those," I whispered, looking up at him.

"Eh, we'll see," he said. "And then after that, I'll dye my hair pink."

"I have to go," I said angrily, secretly playing with him. I marched off and he ran after me.

"Rose," Stephen said.

"No. I have to go," I said, walking to where Richard picked Zach and I up.

"Hey!" He said, finally grabbing my arm and pulling me toward him. "Are you going to go to Nicole's birthday party this weekend?"

"Yeah, I guess if I have to go with you," I said with a grin.

"Good, I'll pick you up at five." He kissed me goodbye and started to walk to the city bus stop. I caught up with Zach and waited for Richard.

"Zach, how come you don't have a girlfriend?" I asked him as Richard pulled up the car. He shrugged.

"I don't really have time for one," he answered as he entered the car.

"Sure you do," I said as Richard pulled away from the school.

"I need to concentrate on other things, like sports and my grades," he said accusingly.

"Hey, my grades have been the best ever," I explained to him, and it was true; I had never had grades this good before. I thought having a boyfriend would possibly bring my grades down, but it made them go up.

"I dunno, it's just not my thing," he said, pulling out his cellphone and starting to play tetris. I leaned back and waited until the house had come into view. Zach and I hurried into the house, trying to avoid Annabelle at all costs. Lately she had been very angry and mean toward everyone in the house, so Zach and I were trying to stay out of her way.

"Rosalyn!" She shrieked from the den. I paused and looked at Zach.

"You better go to her before she kills you," he advised, running up the stairs as quickly as he could. I sighed and walked into the den. She had called me by my full name, and whenever she did that, she was never pleased with me. She was sitting on the couch, reading the latest Vogue magazine. She looked up sharply and narrowed her eyes at me.

"Nicholas tells me that you're going to a birthday party this weekend for you friend Nicole?" She asked.

"Yes. Stephen is picking me up," I answered cautiously. Every time I mentioned Stephen, she grew more into a rage.

"Stephen. Humph. You could do much better than that boy," she mumbled under her breath. Every time she had said that, I wanted to rip her throat out.

"Stephen is a wonderful, nice boy. Just because he doesn't have loads of money or interact with the people in your rich society, doesn't mean you can inspect him under a magnifying glass to point out his imperfections," I snapped at her. I knew that I would regret it later, but I didn't care of the repercussions at the moment. Her eyes grew wide, and she stood up.

"How dare you talk to me like that. In my own house!" She yelled. "Remember that you are a guest in this house, a charity case Nicholas picked up on his way home from the grocery store, and at any moment, you could be living out on the streets, just like you had before. You're not going to that party, especially because it involves a pool, near nakedness, and raging teenage boys. Go to your room and do your homework before I kick you out myself," she ordered. I wasn't scared of her. I towered over her because she was a short, petite woman, and if I wanted to beat the living hell out of her, I could have. But for the sake of the rest of the household, I gave her a dirty look instead and marched up to my room noisily and slammed the door when she walked by. Later, I would tell Nicholas what she had told me, and he would be furious with her. Instead of doing my homework, which I didn't have, I called Stephen instead and told him what had happened.

"You can't go?" He asked. I could hear the disappointment in his voice, and my heart sank.

"I'm going. Who cares what she says? She isn't my mother, and she doesn't have absolute rule over me."

"How are you going to get there?"

"You're going to pick me up, of course," I said.

"Rose, I don't know if I should do that. I might get in trouble and stuff and she could do something that we'll both regret."

"Don't worry about her. I have Nicholas on my side," I said confidently. I ended the conversation quickly, hearing Nicholas walk through the hallway, and I chased after him.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked, standing at the foot of his bedroom door. He looked worn out and tired, and I wondered if this was the right time to tell on his wife.

"Um, yeah. Give me about 10 minutes," he said, sitting on his bed and sighing. I could tell that he wanted a few minutes to relax and such, so I went downstairs to watch a little TV. A few minutes later, Nicholas walked in, dressed in his normal clothes.

"What's wrong now?" He asked, groaning as he sat down.

"Maybe it should wait until later, you look really tired," I said, turning toward him.

"Don't worry about me. I know what was going on anyway," he said.

"Who told you?" I questioned.

"Both Zach and Annabelle, though both versions of the story are different. Let me hear yours," he said. I began to explain as accurately as I could what happened in the den. When he heard what happened, he sighed.

"That sounded more like Zach's story," Nicholas finally said. "Rose, I want you to be careful about what you say to her. She can get you out of this house, and I can't stop her all of the time." I nodded, knowing that she could do whatever she wanted.

"Am I allowed to go to the party?" I asked.

"Yes, you can go. But please, watch what you say," Nicholas warned. I grinned and ran up to my room to tell Stephen.

The weekend rolled around quickly, and the party was here. Stephen came to pick me up around five, and we headed over to Nicole's house. It was a pool party, and it would be the first time that Stephen would see me in a bathing suit. We were escorted into the backyard my Nicole's mother and were exposed to the party. Loud music was blaring in the background, and over that I could hear the screams of the other guests as they were playing around in the pool. Nicole dragged herself out of the pool and said hi.

"You guys better get in," she said, shivering as she looked back at the others. Everyone started to greet us, and I looked at Stephen. He was taking off his shirt and his pants to reveal red swimming trunks. I slowly removed my shirt to reveal a black bikini top and my skirt to reveal short bottoms, and Stephen was already coming at me.

"I"m gonna throw you in the pool," he said, putting his hands on my waist and lifting me up.

"Stephen don't you dare!" I screamed at him as he scooted toward the edge of the pool. He looked as if he were going to let me go free, but at the last second, he dumped me inside. The water was a little cold, but refreshing. I almost panicked, remembering the time when I had almost drowned, but I swam to the surface and wiped my eyes. Stephen swam toward me and pulled me toward him, smiling. Just being up against his chest made my heart beat faster. He lightly brushed his lips against mine, and I giggled, looking around at the others who were staring. Stephen lifted up my legs and wrapped them around his waist and we sat at the edge of the pool, watching everyone make fools of themselves.

"You look great in a bathing suit," he whispered in my ear. I smiled.

"Well, you don't look to bad yourself," I said. He kissed my neck, and I was wondering if we were showing to much affection, but I really didn't care. We stayed like that most of the night, softly talking as the others were drowning in the pool. Of course, Stephen and I interacted with the others for awhile and then got out of the pool, the party coming to an end. We wrapped a towel around each other, trying to fight off the cold. Karen came to pick us up, and she offered to take me back to their house to have a late dinner, but I had to refuse. She said the offer was always welcomed, and she dropped me off at the house. I walked inside, hoping that Annabelle wouldn't hear me, and I hurried inside of my room, eagerly waiting to take a shower and to get into bed. After I showered and dressed in my pajamas, I went downstairs to get some water, but I heard Nicholas and Annabelle arguing. The curiosity got to me and I crept by their door.

"Please, Annabelle, just for tonight," I heard Nicholas say very softly. Something was telling me that they were trying to have an intimate moment. My mind flashed back to the time when Nicholas and I were having a conversation in the kitchen about how Annabelle was unwilling.

"No, Nicholas," Annabelle snapped. I sank down to the floor and rested against the wall as I listened.

"Please, Annabelle, it's been months, and I had to plead the last time," Nicholas pleaded, walking around the room.

"No Nicholas. After last time, after what happened, I don't want to risk it."

"Annabelle, I swear to God it was an accident. It broke... I didn't think that you were going to be pregnant..." Nicholas trailed off, and I gasped. Annabelle was pregnant? What had happened?

"I don't believe that Nicholas. I know how much you want children," Annabelle said.

"Please, I was being reckless. Annabelle, I love you," Nicholas said softly, walking in the room. I heard soft kissing after that, and Annabelle whimpering.

"Please, don't let it be like last time..." Nicholas asked. "I promise, you'll like it."

"Nicholas..." I heard her say. "Go to your whore. She will enjoy it."

"I don't have another woman on the side, Annabelle," Nicholas hissed.

"You did, before," she said, walking around the room.

"That was years ago Annabelle. But now she's gone," Nicholas said. "There hasn't been anyone else since her."

"Then you've learned your lesson," Annabelle said. I heard the bedsprings creak once as she sat down.

"Annabelle," Nicholas said hotly. "You're beautiful, sexy, and I love you so much. Please, just for tonight. One night, one time," I heard his hurried footsteps across the floor.

"Please, Nicholas, stop," I heard Annabelle say. I heard soft kissing noises, and groaning. The bedsprings started to move a little bit, and I heard Annabelle's yelp.

"Nicholas," she gasped.

"Annabelle," Nicholas said. I couldn't stand anymore so I stood up and fled from the doorway. I ran down to the hallway and to my room, where I softly shut the door and waited. Had they heard me running? I closed my eyes and heard the conversation replay in my head. Nicholas had to plead with his wife? I shuddered, hoping that Nicholas didn't have to use physical means to force Annabelle. I closed my eyes, trying to forget the whole incident, and I climbed into bed, trying to think of something else as I went to sleep. I couldn't though, so I went downstairs to watch some TV. Zach had already beaten me there. He was up late, watching a basketball re-run.

"What are you doing up?" He asked as I sat down.

"Couldn't sleep," I lied, realizing that I had only gotten home about an hour ago.

"Me either. I come out here and watch TV when I can't sleep," Zach said, flipping through the channels.

"What keeps you up?" I asked.

"Thoughts," he said. He looked at me. "Don't think that I don't know what's going on in my parent's bedroom right now." My head swivelled toward him. "You came from the east wing. My parents room."

"I didn't mean to hear anything," I said, looking ashamed of myself.

"Don't worry. I hear it all the time. It happens often," Zach admitted.

"And nobody has done anything about it?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"I don't like to get involved. And she's never gone to the police about it," Zach said.

"Your father had an affair," I said to him.

"I don't know much about it," he said, staring at the TV. "It was before either of us were born. Some woman down the street. It went on for almost five years."

"I knew that," I said softly, looking down on the floor. "She was paid one million dollars to leave."

There was a brief moment of silence, and I turned to Zach.

"What did you think when your father brought me into the house?" I asked. I wanted to know how he felt about the whole situation. He looked at me for a second and sighed.

"It was really...weird," he blurted. "I mean, my father brought a complete stranger, a teenage girl into the house, and I was supposed to accept you and treat you like I knew you."

"I can understand that," I whispered.

"It really wasn't too bad thought. I thought you were going to be trouble and things were going to change, but not much has happened," he answered. "But, this has happened before."

My head snapped toward him. "What?" I asked quickly.

"Yeah. A few years back, when I was 11 years old, this girl came to the door looking for my dad. She was a cocaine addict; she was living on the streets and didn't have much money. Anyway, she claimed that she was my father's illegitimate child. We thought that she was the child of the first woman that my father had an affair with, but it was a one night stand thing. My father totally believed her and he offered her a place to stay. She was 17, almost 18, so we thought that she could take care of herself. So we went to bed that night, and we woke up in the morning and expected her to come out of her room to go get something to eat or something, but she never came out.

"Finally, after a few hours, we decided to see if she was still here; maybe she had snuck out of the room. We walked inside and saw that she was still sleeping. Mom shook her to wake her up, but she never did. We ripped the covers back on the bed and saw loads and loads of drugs sitting next to her. During the night, she had overdosed on cocaine. We called the police and had her taken away. Later, when they went through the little things that she had, they found a slip of paper with our address and name. After going through more papers that she had, we found out that she was a drug smuggler and that she knew the house was big enough to traffic drugs through. She wasn't really my father's long lost daughter."

I sat there, staring at him in disbelief. Why hadn't Nicholas told me about this? Why was he keeping so many things from me?

"You're one good story teller," I finally said, trying to absorb this.

"I wish I was as good as you though," Zach said.

"Is there anything else that I should know? Is he hiding someone in the basement?" I asked jokingly.

"I don't know. I haven't been down there lately," Zach joked along.

"What I don't understand, is why your father is so eager to help people," I muttered more to myself, but Zach answered anyway.

"Redemption."

"Redemption?"

"Yeah. For disobeying his wife. He thinks that if he does good deeds for the rest of his life, that God will eventually forgive him," Zach answered.

"So I'm just another good deed?" I asked aloud.

"No, I don't think so. I think this time he truly saw someone in need, and he wanted to help you out," he decided. I nodded and looked around the room. After the story that Zach had just told me, I wanted to know all of the secrets of this family, and someday publish it all in a novel.

"This is a lot to take in for one night," I said to myself, staring at the late night soap opera on the TV.

"Can you handle it?" Zach asked. We locked eyes, and I could tell that he wasn't able to handle all of the family secrets.

"I think so," I said thoughtfully, wondering how much more there was to know. "Zach, why doesn't Annabelle like me?" I asked randomly.

"I think it's because dad takes your side over hers most of the time," Zach answered truthfully.

"But even the first day that I was here, she didn't want me to be in the house. Did she not like my mother?" I questioned, wondering what I could do to turn the hate around.

"I don't know. That was way before our time, remember?" he said. I nodded. "She's not used to change. She's not spontaneous or flexible when it comes to things like this."

"Hmm," I murmured, thinking if there was some sort of family grudge against the Fugue's in my family. I couldn't recall anything.

"I think I'm going to bed. I have a lot of things to sleep on," I announced, standing up and looking around. The whole house had secrets lurking in the shadows, and all it took was a little investigating to find out.

"That's probably wise. It's at least 12. Don't you have church in the morning?" Zach asked.

"Yeah," I said, starting to walk to the stairs. "Zach?"

"Yeah?" He asked, still sitting on the couch. I smiled at him.

"Thanks," I murmured. He nodded in response and I headed up the stairs, pausing as my eyes wandered toward the east wing. There was no noise coming from the bedroom, and from under the doorway, I could see that the lights were turned off. I shook my head, trying to forget the scene and crawled into my bed and immediately went to sleep, pushing the thoughts and events that had happened today out of my mind and away for a while.

In the morning during church, I had an earful to tell Stephen. I told him everything, confident that he wouldn't tell a soul.

"Well, they sure do have an interesting background," he said after I was finished blabbing. I nodded.

"I just want to know more about the family. My curiosity is getting to me," I said, chewing on my lower lip.

"I can tell. Just don't worry about it. I'm sure that things will start flowing when you stop asking," Stephen said. It made sense, so I nodded and held tight to his hand. I declined going over to his house after the service; I wanted to talk to Nicholas and find out what other secrets he had lying around the house. As soon as I burst in the door, I wanted to know where he is.

"He's not home, why?" Annabelle asked suspiciously, giving me an odd look.

"Nothing, I just wanted to talk to him...that's all," I said as casually as possible. She walked away, shaking her head and muttering something under her breath, and I went up to my room to wait. As soon as he walked in the door, I ran to him.

"We need to talk," I said cooly, keeping my eyes locked with his.

"Ok, fine, just let me change really quick," he said, heading up the stairs. He obviously didn't catch the seriousness in my voice, and I feared that this was going to be harder than I thought. After five minutes, he walked out of his bedroom, and I turned him around.

"I'd rather we do it in here," I said, pushing him back into his bedroom and shutting the door behind me.

"Rose, what's going on? Is something wrong?" He asked, sitting down on his lush bed. It was the first time I had been in his room, and I gaped. It was all done in purple and gold tones. The California King bed sat in the middle of the room, dressers and a vanity table off to the left, next to the bathroom door. On the right were two french doors leading out to a stone balcony looking over the backyard.

"Yes, something is wrong," I said, sitting down in a nearby chair.

"What's going on?"

"After I got home from the party last night, I went up into my room to shower and get ready for bed. I was thirsty, so I went downstairs to get some water, but I heard you and Annabelle shouting..." I trailed off, trying not to say that I had heard him force himself on his wife. His face got very pale and his eyes grew wide.

"Rose, please believe me when I say this, but I do not rape my wife. I-"

"I understand Nicholas, but that's not the subject at hand," I said, even though I did want to discuss what had happened, but I decided to save it for another time.

"Then what is it?" Nicholas asked. He seemed impatient to know what it was.

"After I heard you guys talking, I went to go downstairs to watch TV because I couldn't sleep. Zach was down there, and we got to talking," I said softly.

"About what?" Nicholas asked gravely.

"Well, I asked him what he thought about me suddenly living here and he said that he was used to it. It had happened before," I said, locking my eyes with him once again. His face grew pale, and he took a deep breath, as if he couldn't breath. "Zach told me about the time when he was 11 years old, and that you had invited a crack addict into your home because you believed that she was your daughter. Nicholas, how am I to be accepted in this family if I don't know what has happened in the past?" I asked, a tiny bit of hysterics in my voice. "What other secrets do you have in your past or that lie around the house, waiting for me to discover them? Do you have a secret love child? Or does Annabelle have a secret lover? How am I supposed to trust you if you lie to me?"

"I'm sorry Rose, for not telling you," he said softly, knowing that he had done something wrong. "I realize that your view of me has changed a little."

"Not at all," I replied. "I still think of you as a wonderful man who took in a needy girl, a man who loves his wife and son."

He smiled at that remark and stood up.

"If I'm going to be a part of this family, I want to know all of the secrets that lurk in it. I don't want to be left in the dark," I said, folding my hands in my lap. "Is there anything that I should know about that might come up into conversation?"

"Not that I can recall," Nicholas asked, stroking his chin.

"Good. Thanks for listening," I said softly, standing up to walk out of the room.

"Wait," Nicholas said, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward him. He looked into my eyes and smiled.

"Rose, you're wonderful," he said, grinning from ear to ear. "I promise, my secrets, are your secrets." He leaned over to kiss my cheek, and we walked out of the room, Nicholas going downstairs to start dinner. And as I watched him walk away, I could tell that Nicholas Fugue had lied.